OPINION:
America could be headed down a one-way street with one-party rule, joining the illustrious ranks of Communist China, equally communist Cuba and nuke-naughty North Korea.
If the results from a tumultuous week of vote counting hold, the State of Georgia (the American, not Russian one) will determine whether the Democrats — who will already control the White House and Congress — can wield total control by winning two January U.S. Senate runoff elections.
That would move the Senate into a 50-50 tie, with the tiebreaker belonging to the Kamala Harris, who won’t have to wait for Joe Biden to leave office before she claims power. Despite commanding no mandate, despite Democratic losses in the House and failed gains in the Senate this past week, Ms. Harris and Nancy Pelosi could rule the legislative roost with reckless abandon with no need to check in with the public about what they want.
Many have decried the increasing use of “executive orders,” popularized under Barack Obama and continued by Donald Trump, that force through policies the legislative branch of government slow-walked, balked at or simply opposed. We are two Senate seats away today from a new kind of directive — “legislative orders” — that will not have to suffer through the inconvenience of a vote. The vote is baked in.
In a democracy that depends on checks and balances, there would be only checks (we’d be forced to write) and no balance. None.
Medicare for All would have new life, threatening to choke off private health insurance for 180 million Americans. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren will be on a “huuuge” roll, big government would grow even bigger, and bureaucrats will be calling the shots about who gets a shot.
That’s the tip of the iceberg. What’s more chilling is the new power the “Squad” (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar and Ayanna Pressley) will wield over everything from a Green New Deal (that deals out oil and gas) to a foreign policy that backtracks on China and continues to divest money and moral support from Israel, the best guarantee the Western world has that the Middle East doesn’t devolve into Middle Earth.
In a democracy, where all points of view are considered worthy of consideration, only those chosen by the left will be seriously entertained as the center and right brace for an incoming assault. Judging by recent form, the new president will deny it, the media will excuse it and partisans on the left will abuse it.
How does one-party rule work? In a word, “absolutely.” No dissent allowed, no debate permitted, no questions entertained. It is the common thread that defines authoritarian rule, that links communism to fascism, that supports dictatorship and extinguishes freedom.
The most extreme examples of it in modern history are well-known and widely-feared. The Soviet Union forced fealty to one supreme power for nearly 60 years (1922-81). Strongman Benito Mussolini bent Italians to their collective knees for 20 (1922-43). And then, of course, there’s Nazi Germany.
Today, one-party rule is still in play. In Communist China, when a virus becomes a pandemic, there are no nightly news conferences, COVID task forces or public unrest. Big brother doesn’t have to listen to the rest of family before proclaiming what will be done. In Castro’s Cuba, free will, diversity of opinion, racial equality and gender freedom are not tolerated. They are punished.
In North Korea, Kim un “Krazy” doesn’t have to poll anyone if he wakes up one night with a psychotic pang and bangs a button or two that launches nuclear hell toward South Korea, Japan or in the direction of the Western world farther east.
The stock market this week soared because of the expectation the 2020 election will result in split government, that any move for major systemic change (higher taxes, more regulations, more government control) will have to withstand the rigors of democracy. If that balance turns into fool’s gold, the market will fall and the economic challenges will deepen.
The holidays will soon be upon us, but there will be no holiday if two U.S. Senate seats fall and complete the Democrats’ relentless march toward (our) world domination. Rest assured, Republicans will not be alone in fighting this assault.
• Adam Goodman is a partner at Ballard Partners in Washington, D.C., and the first Edward R. Murrow Senior Fellow at Tufts University’s Fletcher School. Follow him on Twitter @adamgoodman3.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.